Monster

Wuming ignored the man's provocations, continuing her relentless assault. Unfortunately, her lack of chakra meant her attacks lacked power, and the man parried them with ease.

The man could not stand the human-like expression on Wuming's face. "A weapon should act like a weapon, you bastard!"

In a corner where no one was looking, Chigusa's Sharingan exerted a subtle influence on the man. Gradually, only one voice echoed in the man's mind:

"Fight! Exhilarating!"

The man felt his desire for battle surging, a violent, pent-up rage rising within him.

Just as he prepared to strike a lethal blow, Shiri's voice came from nearby: "Enough!"

Shiri's voice startled Chigusa, who had been secretly using his Sharingan; he deactivated his eyes as if nothing had happened.

Seeing that someone had arrived, the man stopped his movements and said with a smile, "This thing was acting a bit rebellious, so I was just teaching her a lesson."

Shiri refrained from looking at Chigusa, instead saying sternly to the man, "The Senju Clan members will be here soon. Lord Naoto wants you to bring Wuming over immediately."

She then raised her voice, demanding sharply, "Can you bear the responsibility if you delay the clan's battle situation?!"

The man clicked his tongue in defiance, shot a glance at Wuming, and said, "Let's go! Don't delay Lord Naoto's experiment!"

Wuming looked at Chigusa lying on the floor of the cell. Seeing the look in his eyes telling her not to worry, she felt slightly relieved.

However, the thought of being used as a weapon to kill others weighed on her. Would Chigusa, who now knew her true nature, be afraid of her hands stained with blood?

With a heavy heart, Wuming followed Shiri and the man out of the cell.

Watching them leave, Chigusa reactivated his Sharingan, staring fixedly at the man's retreating back. The three tomoe in his eyes trembled slowly, as if they were about to change patterns at any moment.

Although Chigusa did not yet understand the full extent of his Sharingan's power, he felt subconsciously that any enemy targeted by his left eye would meet a miserable fate.

Unfortunately, the man quickly exited the cell. With his target gone, the Sharingan stopped trembling, and a wave of exhaustion from the depths of his soul caused Chigusa's vision to blacken, and he fainted.

An hour later, in a valley within the Senju territory, the charred corpses of Senju clansmen lay scattered everywhere. Wuming stood in the center of the carnage, hunched over and gasping for air.

The few remaining Senju clansmen were all severely wounded, lying on the ground and cursing:

"Damn Uchiha!"

"You monster, you'll meet a miserable end sooner or later!"

"It's so terrifying, I want to go home..."

Uchiha Naoto stood on a small hill with Shiri and the man from the cell, asking Shiri with a strange tone:

"Why does it feel like Wuming's ninjutsu power has increased significantly today? Did we implant the wrong jutsu?"

Shiri replied respectfully, "It should be due to what I mentioned—the effect of Uchiha Chigusa."

Naoto was even more surprised to hear this: "Such an effect in less than half a day?"

He activated his Sharingan to observe the flow of Wuming's chakra on the battlefield. It was no different from before; it seemed the increase in ninjutsu power was an effect of improved ocular power.

"Go bring Wuming back, Keisuke." Naoto gave the order calmly.

The man from the cell, Uchiha Keisuke, had a strange expression, as if he were harboring infinite rage. Upon hearing Naoto's command, he leaped directly into the battlefield.

However, instead of carrying out Naoto's order to retrieve Wuming, he charged at a groaning Senju clansman on the ground and punched him in the head.

The blow smashed the Senju clansman's skull to pieces, splattering red, white, and yellow gore all over Keisuke's face.

Not satisfied with killing one, Keisuke leaped in front of another Senju clansman and slit his throat with a kunai.

Keisuke's killing spree surprised Naoto and Shiri. For a moment, the mindset of researchers took precedence, and they did not step forward to stop him.

Soon, there were no living Senju clansmen left on the battlefield. Keisuke, covered in blood, seemed unsatisfied and set his sights on Wuming in the center of the field.

As Keisuke closed the distance with a rapid ninja run, he performed hand seals:

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"

Wuming, her Sharingan active, seemed to anticipate Keisuke's jutsu. Before he could even finish his seals, she had already begun her own:

"Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation!"

A vast, overwhelming wave of flames rolled forward, as if representing her own fury, and swallowed Keisuke's fireball whole.

Shiri, standing on the hill, was about to intervene to stop their fight, but Naoto reached out an arm to block her, saying:

"No rush. Let's gather some intelligence first."

The wave of fire from the Great Fire Annihilation engulfed Keisuke's figure, but Wuming did not let her guard down.

As it turned out, Keisuke had leaped into mid-air, scattering a large number of shuriken while performing seals:

"Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Flower Nail Crimson!"

Countless fist-sized fireballs, each wrapping around a shuriken, shot toward Wuming from all directions. At the critical moment, Wuming completed her hand seals:

"Fire Style: Great Fire Wall Technique!"

The flames Wuming exhaled quickly forged a brilliant wall of fire around her, encasing her like an eggshell. The flaming shuriken emitted a crackling sound upon contact with the wall.

The damaged shuriken fell to the ground, broken and mangled as if melted by the intense heat of the wall.

"Keisuke doesn't seem to be under mental control," Naoto concluded, observing the situation. "Otherwise, his tactics wouldn't be so methodical."

Seeing that his ninjutsu had no effect on Wuming, Keisuke realized in his heart that there was no hope of winning a war of attrition against someone possessing the Eight Thousand Spears; no matter how many techniques he unleashed, it would be futile if he could not break through her defenses.

He abandoned the idea of continuing to cast ninjutsu, drew the long blade strapped to his back, and circled around to approach Wuming.

Having just clashed with over a dozen Senju Clan ninjas, Wuming possessed the ability of the Eight Thousand Spears to draw upon vast amounts of chakra from afar, yet the physical and mental exhaustion was difficult to shake off.

If Keisuke were to close the distance and engage her in taijutsu, the outcome would indeed be unpredictable.

However, Wuming had long grown weary of this world filled with strife, and the thought of Qiancao lying in a prison cell caused a surge of fury to well up from within her heart.

Facing the charging Keisuke, Wuming stopped thinking, gripped her kunai, and rushed forward to meet him.

Although her physical condition and stamina were inferior to Keisuke's, she did not fall behind thanks to her sheer momentum, trading blows with him in a fierce struggle.

Unfortunately, the fatigue in her body still caused Wuming to reveal a flaw; as she took a kick from Keisuke head-on, she lost her footing, her legs stumbling as she lost her balance.

Sensing this rare opportunity, Keisuke held his blade with both hands and thrust it toward Wuming.

With no way to dodge, there was not a hint of retreat in Wuming's eyes; as it turned out, she had intentionally exposed that flaw, willing to be struck by this blade just to close the distance with Keisuke.

Yet, the pain she anticipated did not arrive; instead, her kunai successfully pierced Keisuke's abdomen.

With no time to overthink, Wuming relied on her extensive combat experience and instinctively twisted the kunai inside Keisuke's body, tearing open his wound.

A massive spray of blood gushed out, instantly dyeing half of Wuming's body red and making her appear truly terrifying.

In that same instant, Wuming saw the reason Keisuke had ceased his attack: Uchiha Naoto had intervened at some point, firmly pinning Keisuke's blade between his fingers.

It was precisely because of this momentary restraint that she had succeeded in stabbing Keisuke.

Seeing Keisuke collapse to the ground with severe injuries, Naoto seemed somewhat irritated, delivering a hand-blade strike that knocked Wuming unconscious to the ground.

He gave a brief instruction to the arriving Shiri: "Take Wuming back." He then picked up Keisuke and departed rapidly.